ESA Astronaut training blog

Back in November 2010 ESA’s six latest astronaut candidates received their diploma’s. From that day on they were officially astronauts. The diploma received only covered Basic Training, there is still a lot more to learn.

Basic training covered space engineering, electrical engineering, different scientific
disciplines and the major systems of the International Space Station and other space vehicles. It included scuba diving to prepare for spacewalks, robotics, survival training, rendezvous and docking, and the Russian language.

Since then the astronauts have had undergone survival training and caving missions. Follow this blog to read about the on-going training from the astronauts themselves: Samantha Cristoforetti from Italy, Alexander Gerst from Germany, Andreas Mogensen from Denmark, Luca Parmitano from Italy, Timothy Peake from the UK and Thomas Pesquet from France.

I’ve been a fan of sci-fi, space and Nasa since I was a toddler. If reincarnation exists I’m coming back as a “film-making skateboarding fighter pilot astronaut”. That sort of thinking only exists because of inspiring people like Tim Peake!